SilkRoad drug marketplace rises from the ashes

It's only taken about a month, but on top of original competitor sites scooping up big handfuls of old members, Silk Road has returned in its 2.0 form, bringing with it some simple changes, but largely sticking to the formula in the hope of bringing back old vendors and customers alike.

The tor-only accessible site has a new onion address of course, but the login screen looks very similar to the one you can still see on the original Silk Road address – with just a couple of minor alterations.

Note the logo in the background and the “This Site Has Risen,” stamp

According to AllThingsVice, functionality on the site is essentially restored to pre-take down levels, with transactions possible and the usual number of product categories available. However there are some new features, like the ability to put up information about you as a customer (only vendors could do this before). There's also a spot for you to add your own public PGP key, should anyone wish to get in touch with you anonymously.

Not all features have been implemented yet, but for some of the outstanding ones, the admins are offering a bounty for programmers and translators, with weekly wages – presumably paid in Bitcoin.

The forum has also been restored, mostly to its former glory. While many old members have flocked back, some of whom have already begun setting up old threads that they ran on the original forums, there is a bit of an influx of spammers and trolls, so for now, registrations there are by invite only.

The main site though isn't preventing new registrations, so it's perfectly easy to sign up and login. Though if you're looking for product, the categories are a little thin at the moment. It's only the day after the relaunch though, so give it some time.

Even the site's figurehead admin, Dread Pirate Roberts has made a return, though presumably this is someone different than the accused admin of the original site, Ross Ulbricht.

KitGuru Says: It goes without saying that Kitguru doesn't encourage any of you to search out sites like this. However if you do, make sure you're using a Tor browser and make sure that the address you visit is the legitimate one as no doubt with Silkroad making a return, plenty of detail scamming, fake login pages will appear over the next few days. 

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